St. Clement Altar Servers
August 22, 2011
RE: Altar Service
Dear Parents of the St Clement Confirmation Candidates:
The St. Clement Church Community needs your help to encourage this year’s Confirmation Candidates to contribute to our parish through a very active and important service group at our church. Altar Service encourages personal responsibility, active participation in the Catholic faith and provides an opportunity to serve the community.
Server training will begin on Saturday, September 24th at 9:00 AM in the church. There are nine practices scheduled but attendance at all nine is not a requirement. The training is not difficult and usually five or six practices are all that are needed to become sufficiently proficient to join a team of experienced (two, three and four year) servers. Practice is in the Church from 9:00 AM to 10:00 AM. There are no practices on October 8th, November 12th and November 26th (Thanksgiving Weekend). The induction of new servers will be held on December 11th, the Third Sunday in Advent at the 11:00 AM Mass. The first service at Mass for new Servers will be Christmas Midnight Mass. Normal scheduled service will begin in January for some and February for the rest.
Service at Mass is one month on and one month off. The schedule rotates through the Masses on Saturday and Sunday. As an example, if scheduled service is at the 5:00 PM Saturday Masses in January, the next scheduled service will be at the 8:00 AM Masses in March, the 9:30 AM Masses in May and the 11:00 AM Masses in July. The months in between have no service commitment. Server participation at Christmas Midnight Mass and Holy Week is strongly encouraged for all servers. Weddings, Sacraments and Special Services are voluntary. This is a great opportunity for your daughters and sons to provide service to the community during their High School years. The Servers at St. Clement stand out for their maturity, commitment to the community and personal responsibility. Many High Schools require community service as does the National Honor Society. Altar Service is an excellent means to provide the required service time. I have written many letters of recommendation for Servers in our program for the National Honor Society, College Applications, Eagle Scout, Employment Reference, etc. The commitment to community service stands out on a college application as it is indicative of a well rounded individual that gives of his or her time for the benefit of other.
The program at St. Clement is very flexible and we do our best to accommodate sports, work and vacations either through planned scheduling or service time exchanges with other servers. There are between 45 and 65 Servers in the program depending upon the time of year. The more servers in the program the easier it is to accommodate individual needs without schedule changes or service time exchanges. Please encourage your child to come to one of the practices and see what the program entails. We are looking for twenty or more volunteers so please speak with your daughter or son about joining the St. Clement Altar Servers. For more information about St Clement Altar Service e-mail or call Joe Cahill. If your child is interested but unsure about joining please come to a practice, ask questions and see what it’s all about.
E-mail: jccahilljr@aol.com Home Tel: 732-290-8130 Cell: 732-284-1600
Sincerely,
Joe Cahill & Ed Devlin
Practice Schedule – Saturday 9:00 AM to 10:00 AM in the Church
September 24; October 1; October 15; October 22; October 29; November 5; November 19
December 3; December 10; Induction December 11 at the 11:00 AM Mass
No Practice: October 8; November 12; November 26
